Johannesburg - Mining production continued to pick up as different parts of the sector, most notably platinum, recovered from last year’s wave of strikes while sales continue to stutter. This was a reflection of stagnating or falling commodity prices, Statistics SA (StatsSA) said on Thursday.
Figures from StatsSA released on Thursday showed that mining production increased by 7.7% in April this year compared to April last year, with platinum increasing by 81.6% as the sector had been in the grip of a five-month long strike in April last year. Production also increased by 5.9% in the three months to the end of April, compared to the preceding three months.
At the same time, Stats SA reported that mining sales had decreased by 1.1% in March this year, compared to March last year, with sales of iron ore falling by 38.7%, sales of coal falling by 5.5% and manganese ore dropping by 16.6%.
Sales in March this year stood at R 32.9 billion.
ANA